The mother of the man who was wrongly arraigned by the police, this morning made a sworn statement that her son was contacted by Charles Attard (Iz-Zambi) who asked him to speak to someone at the Home Affairs Ministry, the shadow minister for home affairs, Jason Azzopardi said today.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Dr Azzopardi said this backed comments he had made at a press conference last week that the Chief of Staff at the ministry, Silvio Serri, has used Mr Attard, a convicted criminal, as a go-between to speak to Darryl Luke Borg before he was interviewed by the Police Board which is investigating how he was wrongly arraigned.

The ministry had claimed that it was Borg who contacted the ministry and he had taken Charles Attard along with him for a meeting.

The Police Commissioner on Wednesday backed the ministry's version, saying phone logs proved it was Borg who contacted the ministry.

Charles Attard served time for the attempted murder of Richard Cachia Caruana.

Dr Azzopardi said Jane Borg, Darryl Luke's mother. had said that it was Charles Attard who approached her son to meet somebody at the ministry.

They met him in Birkirkara and drove to the ministry for the meeting on Tuesday week.

Mr Attard took them to Silvio Scerri.

At one point Mr Scerri asked them whether Inspector Taliana, who had arraigned the right man, had contacted them.

Mrs Borg replied that she had phoned him herself to thank him for solving the case.

She told him how matters unfolded. 

Mrs Borg felt she had been interrogated by Mr Scerri about Inspector Taliana, Dr Azzopardi said.

IZ-ZAMBI ALSO PHONED TO CONFIRM BORG'S ATTENDANCE AT POLICE BOARD MEETING

In the evening of the meeting, Mr Attard contacted her to confirm her presence at the Police Board meeting and that of her son.

She initially went alone before the Police Board as her son was ill, but Mr Scerri told her he had to be there. The board waited for him.

One of the first questions which the board asked her was whether she was contacted by anybody from the police. 

Dr Azzopardi said political  responsibility had to be shouldered by all those who covered Scerri's actions, including the Home Affairs minister, the Police Commissioner and the Prime Minister.

This government, he said, had already lost all the moral high ground.

"Mr Scerri's position is no longer tenable," Dr Azzopradi said.

See the sworn declaration by clicking and enlarging the pictures above.

HOME AFFAIRS MINISTRY REACTION

In a reaction, the Ministry of Home Affairs accused Dr Azzopardi of trying to hinder the independent investigation.

It said the affidavit showed that the ministry had not tried to contact Mr Borg. It was somebody else who had told Mr Borg to speak to somebody.  This, the ministry said, belied the claims made by Dr Azzopardi last week.

The ministry insisted that it did not seek to speak to Mr Borg, but it had a duty to hear what he had to say and to direct Mr Borg to the Police Board investigation.  In fact Mrs Borg had spoken of the golden opportunity given to her to tell the board what she had told the ministry. 

The ministry said it had confidence in the investigation by the Police Board and if Dr Azzopardi had any new facts he should present it to the board.

But, the ministry said, it suspected that Dr Azzopardi was trying to defend somebody.

PN REPLIES

In a reply, the Nationalist Party said the sworn declaration by Mrs Borg confirmed that Silvio Scerri had used Charles Attard (Iz-Zambi) as a go-between to speak to Darryl Luke Borg. It also belied Mr Scerri's version of events.

The PN reiterated its call for Mr Scerri to resign and called on the prime minister and the minister for home affairs to shoulder their responsibilities once they had opted to believe Mr Scerri's version and not that of Mr Borg.